Surety bonds: Powering mid-sized companies with fast and flexible guarantees

16 October 2025

As mid-sized businesses pursue growth, they need simple and cost-effective solutions for managing risk without compromising cash flow. Surety bonds from Allianz Trade can play a vital role. 

Medium-sized businesses are the driving force of today’s global economy. They’re ambitious, growth-minded, and increasingly looking beyond their domestic markets for new opportunities. Whether scaling up, competing for larger contracts, or expanding internationally, most mid-sized companies face a common challenge: how to manage risk and reassure their trading partners without putting unnecessary pressure on their financial flexibility. 

Traditionally, many businesses have turned to bank guarantees to meet these needs. For mid-sized companies, this can mean tying up significant liquidity, lengthy (and often, costly) approval processes, and limited flexibility. But there is a reliable alternative. Surety bonds, typically associated with larger businesses and complex projects, can also be a powerful tool for mid-sized firms. 

At Allianz Trade, we understand the ambitions of mid-sized companies, as well as the pressures you face. With our tailored surety solutions, we can help your business grow with confidence.

Your growth ambitions come with additional requirements and cost pressures. As a mid-sized company, by winning bigger contracts and taking on more business, you’re also increasing your risk exposure, and greater financial guarantees are needed to reassure your trading partners, suppliers, and regulators that contractual obligations will be met. 

The problem with traditional solutions like bank guarantees is that they can tie up liquidity and slow your growth. While larger businesses may have the capacity to absorb these financial constraints and continue to expand, as a mid-sized business operating with tighter margins, they can put you under more significant pressure. 

Surety bonds are essentially a promise to your trading partners – a performance guarantee that your company will deliver on its contractual obligations. For your clients, suppliers, and governmental or regulatory bodies overseeing your market or sector, they offer the necessary assurances that your project will be completed, and that payments will be made. 

For you as a mid-sized company, surety bonds can be a game-changer. They don’t weigh down your working capital or use up valuable lines of credit with your bank, giving you greater scope and flexibility to invest in growth. Insurer-issued surety bonds also tend to be quicker to arrange and simpler to issue than bank guarantees, especially with a partner like Allianz Trade that works with mid-sized firms and understands your needs. 

Surety bonds are also versatile. They can be used to underwrite a broad range of business activities, from supporting large-scale infrastructure projects involving lots of partners, to securing contractual obligations in international trade, and guaranteeing the performance of supply agreements. In each instance, the benefit is the same – your partners get the reassurances they need, while you get to maintain cash flow, and the financial capacity to invest in growth and explore new opportunities.

To sustain growth over the long-term, mid-sized companies must strike the right balance between their ambitious objectives and an effective risk management strategy. Surety bonds, especially from a reliable and highly credible insurer partner, can help you find that balance. 

Here are five reasons why Allianz Trade’s surety bonds make sense for mid-sized firms: 

To really understand the value of surety bonds, it’s useful to consider their real-world application. For example, a mid-sized European industrial supply company wants to expand beyond its domestic market and start exporting internationally. It requires a strong set of performance guarantees to reassure and secure new contracts with overseas distributors. Rather than go to the bank for a costly guarantee that would tie up its liquidity, the company chooses insurer-issued surety bonds instead.  

With surety bonds securing the contract, the industrial supplier reassures its new overseas partners that it will deliver its contractual obligations. In addition, the firm positions itself as a reliable new player in the competitive international marketplace. Stories like this emphasize why surety bonds can be an effective growth enabler for mid-sized businesses and help you to secure more sustainable, long-term success. 

For ambitious mid-sized companies, sustaining growth is all about having the right tools and solutions to manage risks effectively, and seize opportunities confidently. Surety bonds offer these firms a flexible alternative to traditional bank guarantees – one that releases your cash flow rather than tying it up, while helping you to build trust and strengthen your relationships with clients and partners. 

Our tailored surety solutions are designed to match the pace and scale of ambitious mid-sized businesses. With Allianz Trade, you get more than just a financial guarantee for your project or trade agreement – you gain a trusted partner who’s committed to supporting your growth, as well as the expertise and financial credibility of the world’s leading trade credit insurance provider. 

At Allianz Trade, we’re empowering mid-sized companies to think bigger and go further.  Discover how we can support your growth journey – every step of the way.